jdreyer wrote on Nov 4, 2014, 14:33:Well, except for Obamacare. Can only blame Obama for that. Assuming you don't like it, that is.

Didn't Romney institute basically the same thing in Massachusetts?

Not to open a huge can of worms, but I cannot resist. The rest of the developed world, and even much of the third world, has universal health care, cheaper internet, better education, you name it. Sometimes you have to take a deep breath and realize the US could learn some things from outside our (eventually heavily fortified) borders.

Democracy cannot co-exist with unbridled Capitalism, discuss.

I think any discussion is pointless as far as what America can do because we live in an environment in which virtually every Republican blames all of that on the Democrats, virtually every Democrat blames it on the Republicans, and every independent voter is some hipster contrarian who spends all day blogging about conspiracy theories and blames it on the illuminati. The idea that you can still work with people with whom you don't agree on every single thing to accomplish things for the common good is so foreign that if you suggest it people look at you like you have lobster crawling out of years. The system isn't broken; WE are broken.

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” - Mahatma Gandhi

@Rigs - I don't have a problem with you having issues with the game's portrayal of violence or having an opinion about it; what I want to know is do you think the game can inspire mass murders or other violent behavior? Based on what?

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” - Mahatma Gandhi

I loved the singleplayer in Red Faction Guerrilla. I was so disappointed that the follow-up Red Faction was nothing like 'Guerrilla' that I never tried it. I would love to see another one done in the same manner of Red Faction Guerrilla but I doubt it will ever happen unless someone does a kickstarter to buy the rights and engine and maybe does an Early Access or something.

Isn't this like a really, really old game?

I had to chuckle a bit when I read that someone thinks a game from 2009 is "really, really old", but I guess games DO age in dog years.

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” - Mahatma Gandhi

Prez, why are people who disagree with you trolling psychos who love to argue yet - presumably - you are not?

Because of the obvious fact that I don't claim that everyone who disagrees with me is a trolling psycho? I have been discussing this with Beamer and others since the beginning. The "love to argue" comment was a joke. But when people start getting emotionally invested to the point that they obsessively use me as an example in a massive wall of text multiple times (deliberately misrepresenting my point), that indicates an unhealthy level of metal instability in my mind. Any other thinly veiled attacks you want to make?

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” - Mahatma Gandhi

In the interest of avoiding pissing off people who are sick of this issue and don't want to see it discussed in an unrelated thread, my answer is deliberately concise and in secret text. I will NOT be discussing it any further in this thread.

What unethical has polygon done?

The thread details instances in which Patricia Hernandez of Kotaku and Ben Kuchera of Polygon have published articles in which they had a conflict of interest. In the previously mentioned piece by Totillo, he affirmed Kotaku’s dedication to a standard of ethics, claiming that,

My standard has long been this: reporters who are in any way close to people they might report on should recuse themselves

Grabbing that single line of the article, reddit user F1renze accused Patricia Hernandez of publishing articles featuring her friend’s games.

Ben Kuchera’s fault, according to the same reddit user, is that he published an article on Zoe Quinn without acknowledging that he support her Patreon campaign, giving her money to develop games on a monthly basis. F1renze suggested that this was in direct opposition to the Polygon Code of Ethics which says:

Unless specifically on a writer’s profile page, Polygon staffers do not cover companies (1) in which they have a financial investment, (2) that have employed them previously or (3) employ the writer’s spouse, partner or someone else with whom the writer has a close relationship.

Both accusations have resulted in the target publications making statements. However, before we delve into the “is it ethical or not” question, let’s take a moment to look at the point of video game publications, basic journalism ethics, and the outcome these decisions might have within the gaming community.

This is the biggest example. Their lack of balanced coverage by not providing counterpoint at all to the accusations of sexism and misogyny claims by Quinn and Sarkeesian because of their agenda is another.

Evidence has mounted that gaming journalists from key publications like Kotaku, Ars Technica and Polygon have been colluding with one another to control industry-wide news coverage, adding further credence to the widespread belief that biased agenda-pushing is running rampant in the field.

The last is a simple accusation and only based on circumstantial evidence, but in light of their lack of ethics in being pro-Quinn and Pro-Sarkeesian and the rather suspicious nature of all the editorials from all of the leading media outlets including theirs I don't have a hard time believing that they were involved in collusion. Not evidence, but you asked about accusations, and this in my mind heavily implicates them.

All of that said, I have been reading gaming news for a long time and just about every gaming publication has behaved in contravention of their stated policies one time or another, so I am inherently doubtful everything that they say they adhere to. I am not a trusting person though - I would doubt myself were I not with me 24 hours a day.

EDIT: LOL - I can't figure out how to put the URL's in secret text!

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” - Mahatma Gandhi

If performance royalties were paid, then it would make composers and artists’ lives a lot easier as many developers do not realise that composers have to pay to constantly build and upgrade their studios, create samples, pay engineers, use musicians and so on.”

If they want better royalties, they are going to need to get a little more heavy handed than just asking nicely I think.

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” - Mahatma Gandhi

Prez wrote on Nov 4, 2014, 03:42:What is "G2A"? I want WatchDogs for 8 bucks!!!

One of those dubious keysites that often resells out of region keys. Success rate on those varies and you really need to pay attention to activation instructions. Not sure if uPlay is easier in this regard than Steam though.

Oh. I guess I'll just skip it then and wait. Thanks.

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” - Mahatma Gandhi